Massive movie prop sale: Get your wooden lizards and your...

1of13Above: A line of people enters the Acme Scenery and Prop House sale run by YES Company on Friday, May 17, 2018 in Brisbane, Calif. Left: Kevin "A.J." Black (right), proprieter the YES Co., tallys up the purchase of Bridget Wylie, of Redwood City and propmistress for Broadway by the Bay and Pied Piper Players, at the Acme Scenery and Prop House sale run by YES Company on Friday, May 17, 2018 in Brisbane, Calif. "They're going to have a good home", said Wylie.Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

2of13Kevin "A.J." Black (right), proprieter the YES Co., tallys up the purchase of Bridget Wylie, of Redwood City and propmistress for Broadway by the Bay and Pied Piper Players, at the Acme Scenery and Prop House sale run by YES Company on Friday, May 17, 2018 in Brisbane, Calif. "They're going to have a good home", said Wylie.Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

3of13Above: A doll and other items for sale are seen on a table at the Acme Scenery and Prop House sale run by YES Company on Friday, May 17, 2018 in Brisbane, Calif.
Top: Andra Young of San Francisco carries a screen with scenes from around the world she purchased at the Acme Scenery and Prop House sale run by YES Company on Friday, May 17, 2018 in Brisbane, Calif.Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

4of13A doll and other items for sale are seen on a table at the Acme Scenery and Prop House sale run by YES Company on Friday, May 17, 2018 in Brisbane, Calif.Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

5of13Victoria Black (l to r) with the YES Company hands Dirk Dole, of Templeton, a tag to hold items he found to purchase at the Acme Scenery and Prop House sale run by YES Company on Friday, May 17, 2018 in Brisbane, Calif.Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

6of13Different models of heads are seen on shelving at the Acme Scenery and Prop House sale run by YES Company on Friday, May 17, 2018 in Brisbane, Calif.Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

7of13Josh Koral, owner Acme Scenery and co-owner Prop House, stands ofor a portrait at Acme Scenery during at the Acme Scenery and Prop House sale run by YES Company on Friday, May 17, 2018 in Brisbane, Calif.Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

8of13David Kasprzak of San Francisco stands in line to purchase a giant pair of scissors at the Acme Scenery and Prop House sale run by YES Company on Friday, May 17, 2018 in Brisbane, Calif.Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

9of13Micheal Wong of Berkeley looks over some travel posters at the Acme Scenery and Prop House sale run by YES Company on Friday, May 17, 2018 in Brisbane, Calif.Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

10of13Kevin "A.J." Black, proprieter the YES Co., gives information about the sale to people lined up to attend the Acme Scenery and Prop House sale run by YES Company on Friday, May 17, 2018 in Brisbane, Calif. "They're going to have a good home", said Wylie.Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

11of13Josh Robinson of Pacifica carries a giant planter at the Acme Scenery and Prop House sale run by YES Company on Friday, May 17, 2018 in Brisbane, Calif.Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

12of13Above: Different models of heads are seen on shelving at the Acme Scenery and Prop House sale run by YES Company on Friday, May 17, 2018 in Brisbane, Calif.
Top: Andra Young of San Francisco carries a giant book she purchased at the Acme Scenery and Prop House sale run by YES Company on Friday, May 17, 2018 in Brisbane, Calif.Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

13of13Dirk Dole of Templeton carries different chairs while attending the Acme Scenery and Prop House sale run by YES Company on Friday, May 17, 2018 in Brisbane, Calif.Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

Shoppers at a massive estate sale picked through a warehouse full of items — including a disemboweled body, a towering stone fireplace and a bloody leg.

Those temptations, and many more, were once props in movies, TV shows and theater sets — and they’re all for sale in a big and unusual estate sale that will last for at least two weekends.

Acme Scenery and The Prop House together operate the last big prop shop in Northern California, and they’ve occupied an out-of-the-way warehouse in an industrial area of Brisbane not far from the Cow Palace for 30 years.

But in a scenario that’s become all too familiar in the Bay Area, their landlord raised their rent recently — by about 80%, from $18,020 to more than $32,000 a month, with 45 days notice — and the two companies can’t afford to stay. They’re moving across the bay to San Leandro or Oakland, but they don’t want to bring every shrunken head, life-size wooden lizard or phony pumpkin.

“They have a lot of stuff,” said Kevin A.J. Black, who is running the big prop sale for the companies in a vast 15,000-square-foot warehouse with 20-foot-high ceilings.

There’s so much stuff for sale in Brisbane that it will be sold off in three waves, he said: the Acme Scenery props Friday through Sunday, the Prop House stuff next weekend and anything left over goes after that.

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Kevin “AJ” Black Talks about the Acme Scenery and Prop House sale run by YES Company.

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Hundreds of customers perused the goods — and a line of about 23 satisfied shoppers waited to ring up their purchases. Most of the stuff they’d collected was pretty tame: decorative leaves, wine glasses, street signs, vinyl albums from the 1980s.

Chris Koehne, 37, who works part time in a metal shop at City College of San Francisco, held two large masking-tape dispensers, which he said would come in handy at work because they always go missing — and a vintage Super Soaker squirt gun.

“I had one in the 1990s,” he said, “and it just seemed like it would be fun to have.”

More Information

Acme Scenery’s sale is Friday through Sunday. The Prop House’s sale will be May 24 to 26. Both will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 80 Industrial Way, Brisbane

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A few aisles back, next to a collection of sports equipment, Bill Egan, a retired San Francisco firefighter, held a mannequin of a female brunette’s head in each hand while he perused a third on the shelf. He said he couldn’t decide which to buy for his room full of collectible curiosities.

“I’m pleasantly surprised,” he said. “I thought it would all be junk. But if you look around, there are a lot of really interesting things.”

Josh Koral, who owns Acme Scenery, was clearly upset to see the business of 30 years go away.

“What’s going on here is what’s going on all over the Bay Area,” Koral said. “Landlords are predatory and they’re raising rents and forcing everyone out. It’s hard for small businesses to survive. We’re getting shown the door.”

Michael Cabanatuan has covered all things transportation for the San Francisco Chronicle — from BART strikes, acrobatic bridge construction and dark dirty tunnel excavations to the surging ridership on public transportation and the increasing conflict as cars, bikes and pedestrians struggle to coexist on the streets. He’s ridden high-speed trains in Japan, walked in BART’s Transbay Tube and driven to King City at 55 mph to test fuel efficiency.

He joined The Chronicle as a suburban reporter and deputy bureau chief in Contra Costa County, and has also covered the general assignment beat. In addition to transportation, Michael covers a variety of Bay Area news, including breaking news events. He’s been tear-gassed covering demonstrations in Oakland and exposed to nude protesters in the Castro District. Michael is also a regular contributor to the City Insider column and blog.